Thursday, April 14, 2011

Guilt

"I see by your eagerness and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be: listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject." (page 31)

In class, my group was given guilt as one of its themes to pay particular attention to throughout the novel. Keeping that in mind, this excerpt stood out to me because it expressed guilt that Victor Frankenstein felt for infusing life into a lifeless being; hence, his nameless creation. What I found most interesting about the way he introduced this story to Walton was the way he kept the actual method of how he achieved it a secret. His reasoning was actually logical, saying that he refused to reveal how he did it in order to prevent anyone else from making the same mistake. Victor, guilt-ridden and distraught, felt a duty to warn Walton of his faults.
In my personal opinion, if I were Victor, I wouldn't feel as much guilt for creating the being as I would feel guilty for neglecting it immediately afterward. Realizing that he had underestimated his actions, he flees from what made and tried to run away from it instead of dealing with the problem at hand. If he had truly regretted his actions, I think that he should have found a way to terminate its life in the beginning of its existence before letting it even expose itself to society.

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